Met Driver
Established Member
- Joined
- 8 Jun 2005
- Messages
- 1,734
Today was my final day at Northfields, and the end of my work experience.
When I arrived, I went straight to the DDM (Duty depot Manager) office. As it was my last day, the DDM had a special treat in store for me. He was willing to let me do some shunting under supervision from an instructor.
We were told which train to take out, and I ran a brake test on it to ensure all was well. The instructor drove the train to the shunt neck at the West end of the depot (we had to get permission from East Cabin via the radio first). As there was a possession (due to footpaths being layed), we had to stop at some locations and blow the whistle to alert the workmen.
Once we had pulled up at the mainline outlet signal, we closed up the cab, changed ends and ran another brake test in the other cab. It was now my turn to drive, and I drove the train up from the shunt neck, across the outdoor stabling roads and into the car sheds, with the leading car ending up on juice at the East end. This time, unlike my first driving attempt many years ago, I stopped in axactly the right place, level with the cab access platforms.
The instructor then called up East cabin again on the radio. We were given a shunt signal to one of the sidings at the East end of the depot. Again, I pulled up in the correct place and changed ends. East cabin then gave us another shunt signal which allowed us to take the train back into the road we had originally started from. I closed up the cab and we went back to the DDM office.
We then had a couple of jobs to do. The first one was to attend to a problem with the train doors indicator on the TMS (train monitoring system) unit. Amongst many other things, the TMS displays which cars have their doors open by means of six lamps (one for each car). The indicator for the leading car did not light up when the doors opened, which it should have done. The instructor (also a qualified as a Train Maintainer) originally thought that it might be a problem with a relay, so we went to the stores to find a replacement and it was duly fitted. This made no difference, so the panels were taken off from underneath the offside desk. This revealed that the lamp had not been wired up correctly. A quick alteration to the wiring corrected the problem, and the TMS unit once again gave the correct indication.
The next job was to fix a buffer on another unit, but I didn't help with that so I cannot elaborate as to what the procedure was, other than that for preparing the train for the work to be carried out. It invloved uncoupling the two units in order to the let the brakes off on the affected unit. When the job was finished, the two units were shunted back into each other and recoupled. It was now time for lunch.
After lunch, I returned to the DDM office. The depot was very quiet, and no other jobs needed doing, so I was sat in the office for about 1/2 an hour. The instructor came over and we had a chat. He explained that Fridays are either very hectic or very quiet, today was certainly the latter. I asked him if it would be "taking the waters" if I asked to take another train out for a quick shunt. He asked the DDM who was quite happy for me to do so, so the instructor checked if any units were available . We were allowed to take out the one on 9 road, but this time we only went down to the shunt neck at the West end and back again (again, I was driving). We couldn't continue onto the East end because there were too many trains arriving and leaving the depot.
I closed up the cab, and we headed back to the DDM office. As there was still no more work to be done, I was told I could go home early.
What can I say? Today was a fantastic end a thoroughly enjoyable two weeks, and I would like to thank all the Tube Lines employees who made it possible.
When I arrived, I went straight to the DDM (Duty depot Manager) office. As it was my last day, the DDM had a special treat in store for me. He was willing to let me do some shunting under supervision from an instructor.
We were told which train to take out, and I ran a brake test on it to ensure all was well. The instructor drove the train to the shunt neck at the West end of the depot (we had to get permission from East Cabin via the radio first). As there was a possession (due to footpaths being layed), we had to stop at some locations and blow the whistle to alert the workmen.
Once we had pulled up at the mainline outlet signal, we closed up the cab, changed ends and ran another brake test in the other cab. It was now my turn to drive, and I drove the train up from the shunt neck, across the outdoor stabling roads and into the car sheds, with the leading car ending up on juice at the East end. This time, unlike my first driving attempt many years ago, I stopped in axactly the right place, level with the cab access platforms.
The instructor then called up East cabin again on the radio. We were given a shunt signal to one of the sidings at the East end of the depot. Again, I pulled up in the correct place and changed ends. East cabin then gave us another shunt signal which allowed us to take the train back into the road we had originally started from. I closed up the cab and we went back to the DDM office.
We then had a couple of jobs to do. The first one was to attend to a problem with the train doors indicator on the TMS (train monitoring system) unit. Amongst many other things, the TMS displays which cars have their doors open by means of six lamps (one for each car). The indicator for the leading car did not light up when the doors opened, which it should have done. The instructor (also a qualified as a Train Maintainer) originally thought that it might be a problem with a relay, so we went to the stores to find a replacement and it was duly fitted. This made no difference, so the panels were taken off from underneath the offside desk. This revealed that the lamp had not been wired up correctly. A quick alteration to the wiring corrected the problem, and the TMS unit once again gave the correct indication.
The next job was to fix a buffer on another unit, but I didn't help with that so I cannot elaborate as to what the procedure was, other than that for preparing the train for the work to be carried out. It invloved uncoupling the two units in order to the let the brakes off on the affected unit. When the job was finished, the two units were shunted back into each other and recoupled. It was now time for lunch.
After lunch, I returned to the DDM office. The depot was very quiet, and no other jobs needed doing, so I was sat in the office for about 1/2 an hour. The instructor came over and we had a chat. He explained that Fridays are either very hectic or very quiet, today was certainly the latter. I asked him if it would be "taking the waters" if I asked to take another train out for a quick shunt. He asked the DDM who was quite happy for me to do so, so the instructor checked if any units were available . We were allowed to take out the one on 9 road, but this time we only went down to the shunt neck at the West end and back again (again, I was driving). We couldn't continue onto the East end because there were too many trains arriving and leaving the depot.
I closed up the cab, and we headed back to the DDM office. As there was still no more work to be done, I was told I could go home early.
What can I say? Today was a fantastic end a thoroughly enjoyable two weeks, and I would like to thank all the Tube Lines employees who made it possible.
